Today we went on a kart tour around the island. The karts look almost like dune buggies and are fun to drive.
We drove for quite a ways along paved roads, getting a good look at some of the villages around the island. The towns we passed through consisted of a shop or two, a large church or two or three, several homes, some large, most small, most needing work. Most of the land along the road was cleared, with little wild vegetation. Continue reading
Eric spent the entire day yesterday doing boat chores. He changed the pre-filter on the water maker and cleaned the sea strainer, and changed the generator impellor. He also did some good stuff like secure the toaster oven and dish drainer so they don’t go flying when we get hit by a side wave, re-running wires so we could move some of the computer gear to better locations, general reorganizing, and cleaning.
Yesterday was the last day of SCUBA class for Christi. She took her final exam and did three dives in other parts of the harbor. The other dive sites had more life than the site on Tuesday, but were still mostly dead. There were lots more of both starfish and a couple of sea anenomoies. Christi passed the class with flying colors. After three days of being in the sun with her mask on, she has stylish mask tan lines. Continue reading
Tuesday — Yesterday Christi started a SCUBA certification class. This is the perfect place. Warm, clear water. An instructor whose native tongue is English. With the favorable exchange rate, the price is good.
The first day of class was mostly lecture with a couple hours in shallow water practicing basic skills. The instructor chided her when he looked in her logbook and saw the dive in Suwarrow to 72 feet and the one in Niue through a cave to 102 feet.
While Christi was in class, Eric was the social butterfly. He stayed at the Aquarium Cafe for a while visiting with the other yachties, then pulled out a kayak and kayaked around the harbor visiting with various boats. Continue reading
Yesterday we were going to kayak to a cool snorkeling spot outside of the bay, but it was too windy outside the sheltered bay. Instead, we spent most of the day doing boat chores. Eric changed the oils in the main engine and generator, changed the Racor fuel filters on both and changed the air filter on the generator.
We did go out to eat (of course) at a small cafe. It is run by a palangi (white person) and most of the food on the menu is the usual stuff we get at home hamburgers, fish burgers, etc. At this restaurant and at the Aquarium Cafe, fried eggs on your burger are optional. Also, at both places you can get French fries made of taro and kumala instead of potatoes. In French Polynesia they eat a ton of French fries, and we never once saw them made from anything other than potatoes. Using taro and kumala seems so logical that we find it odd that they don’t do the same in French Polynesia. Lunch was served with a fruit called Kola. It is a citrus fruit with a green peel, like a lime, about the size of a lemon, and the meat is orange, like an orange. It is sour and tastes like a cross between a lemon and a lime. Continue reading